Insulin

A word of caution about the values used below. This study was conducted using people without diabetes.  Some people with diabetes experience symptoms at higher glucose levels than the study suggests. Other people with diabetes appear to function well with blood sugars in the 30's and 40's (mg/dl). Therefore, the values in the study should only be used as an approximation. This study also used plasma glucose levels. Your values done at home might be 20 percent lower or higher than these lab values. For example, epinephrine release in someone without diabetes would begin at about 63mg/dl with a home blood glucose meter.

12 comments - 1 May 2008 -

Hi, Keith,
One of our most popular articles right now is about the many, many folks who accidentally mix up their insulin bottles and take a huge dose of fast-acting insulin by mistake, thinking they are taking long-acting.  (See the article and the 22 reader comments here.)

7 comments - 28 Apr 2008 -

This is a thank-you note for the article, “An Appeal to Insulin Manufacturers,” on page 27 of Diabetes Health (Feb/March 2008). In the 10 years that I have been using insulin, I have made the “near fatal” mistake twice. I use Lantus and Apridra (5 units of Apidra before breakfast and lunch, and 8 units before dinner; 50 units of Lantus at bedtime). I realized what I had done after the fact and stayed up all night eating and monitoring. I was so scared each time I ate my blood sugar up to 300 mg/dl and 400 mg/dl!

1 comment - 21 Apr 2008 -

In wake of news that its inhaled insulin product Exubera has been linked to lung cancer, Pfizer Inc. has announced that it will cease manufacturing the drug and update labels on the remaining product to carry a cancer warning.

5 comments - 16 Apr 2008 -

Editor: I’m writing in regard to an article in Diabetes Health (Feb/March 2008) on page 27 about help in avoiding near-fatal mistakes taking insulin. To read the original article, go here.

8 comments - 9 Apr 2008 -

Take this test on insulin and see if you can get a higher score than hospital doctors and nurses.

16 comments - 26 Mar 2008 -

What is “surprising” about the partial halting of the ACCORD study (“Diabetes Study Partially Halted After Deaths,” Feb. 7, 2008) is that the researchers were so surprised by completely predictable results.

12 comments - 26 Mar 2008 -

Continually revved up insulin production, the kind that results from overeating and obesity, slowly dulls the body’s response to insulin. As a result, blood sugar levels start to creep up, setting the stage for diabetes-associated complications such as blindness, stroke and renal failure. To make matters even worse, chronically elevated blood sugar concentrations exacerbate insulin resistance.

1 comment - 6 Mar 2008 -

About 10 years ago Diabetes Health began reporting on "omission," the practice among some type 1 teen girls of deliberately stopping their insulin intake to produce drastic - and fast - weight loss.

1 comment - 29 Feb 2008 -

Eli Lilly and Company has introduced KwikPen, a pre-filled insulin pen containing its Humalog insulin brand of insulins. The pen is the third that Lilly has introduced over the past 12 months, following in the wake of the HumaPen MEMOIR, a digital insulin pen with memory, and the HumaPen® LUXURA HD, a reusable pen for people who need insulin dosing in smaller increments.

1 comment - 28 Feb 2008 -